Suddenly, this is the hot topic in the largely-issues-free Denver mayoral race. And, for that, Hancock has no one to blame but himself. He has muffed the question in two debates during the so-called lightning round. Lightning, I guess, has struck twice. And twice his campaign has had to clean up after Hancock, in sort of the way Noah had to clean up after the dinosaurs on the ark.

In the latest, he was asked Thursday night whether creationism and intelligent design should be taught in the schools. He said yes. Chris Romer said no.

Here’s a YouTube video of Hancock’s answer:

Hancock’s campaign rushed into what you could call dino-mite mode — and sent out a statement saying Hancock had misunderstood the question. In an earlier debate, when asked whether he believed in evolution, he answered, “I believe in God.”

Among my other sins, I'm a serial columnist. Over too many years to mention, I've written news columns, sports columns, features columns and op-ed columns. My first job was covering the Virginia Squires and Dr. J in the old American Basketball Association. I moved from the Virginian-Pilot to the Los Angeles Times, then to the Baltimore Sun, then to the late Rocky Mountain News and on to The Post.

A blog about whatever thoughts bounce through Mike Littwin's head — from politics to basketball (speaking of bouncing) to politics to books to politics to movies to politics to Sarah Palin (whenever I need the extra clicks).